Chapter 70: Establishing Protocols

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General Graten stumbled upon Midor in the castle hallway.  “You look how I feel,” Graten said.  “Did you not get any sleep last night either?”

“No,” said Midor.  “Robert and I were busy searching for Vivian all night.”

“Did you find her?”

“Yes, eventually.  We found her in the morning.  She was sleeping by the river.”

“Was she okay?”

“It’s hard to tell.  She was sleeping safely on a grassy spot under a tree.”

“That’s lucky.”

“Maybe.  I suspect that she collapsed from exhaustion, and that the forest nymphs were the ones who found her and carried her under the tree.”

“Well, there you go.  Not such a dangerous forest after all,” said Graten.

Midor grimaced.  “It’s lucky the forest nymphs found her first,” he said.  “But she’s alright now.  We’ve brought her back to the castle, and she’s recovering now.”

“Hopefully she’ll get plenty of sleep,” said General Graten.  “I have a feeling we’ll need her again before too long.”

“What do you mean?”

“My men are watching the portal right now.  But if any more monsters come through, they won’t be able to fight them themselves.  You saw what happened last night.”

“I don’t want Vivian using any more black magic,” said Midor.  

“If you have other ideas, then let me know,” said General Graten.  “Otherwise, we’ll need Vivian’s help.”

“What about Catherine?”

“I’ve got an audience scheduled with her this afternoon,” said General Graten.  “You can come if you like.”

**********************************************************************

Midor, General Graten, George and Rufus all met Catherine later that afternoon.  “I heard about your troubles last night,” said Catherine.  “I’m very sorry I couldn’t be of more help, but the arrangement stands.  No one is allowed to see me when I am sleeping.  I’m sorry, but it’s necessary.  You gentlemen, of all people, can appreciate that, I’m sure.”  She then nodded to General Graten.  “Not you sweetie, I’m talking to the other three.  They share a history with me.”

“You know very well that I had nothing to do with that,” said Midor.

Catherine smiled.  “I know none of you were responsible for it.  But I know you all know what happened that night as well as I do.  And I know you, as sure as I know anything, that you’ve been thinking about doing it again.”

“Fine,” said General Graten.  “You are to be guarded by the Goblins and the Ogre at night.  We understand.  But can they be instructed to wake you up if we have an emergency.”

“If there is an emergency at night, you are to go to Talon first,” said Catherine.

“We don’t know where he was last night,” said George.  “We looked everywhere for him.”

“If you can not find Talon, then you may consult Vivian,” said Catherine.  “She’s not quite as powerful as I am yet, but I’m still training her.  You saw what she could do yesterday.”

“Vivian will not be using magic anymore,” said Midor.

“I see,” said Catherine.  “And where is Vivian?  Did the four of you come to speak on her behalf?”

“She’s resting,” said Midor.  “She’s been in a deep sleep all afternoon.”

“Well I can believe that easily enough,” said Catherine.  “I’m sure she had a big night last night.  What I have more trouble believing is that the four of you are authorized to speak for her.  When Vivian awakes, I’ll have a talk with her one on one, and the two of us will work out an arrangement, without everyone butting in.”

“Catherine, you know that the magic isn’t good for her,” said Midor.

“I know no such thing,” said Catherine.  “And neither do you.  You have an irrational prejudice against magic because you don’t understand it.”

“This discussion is not getting us anywhere,” growled General Graten.  “We came here to establish protocols.  I don’t want to get into a debate.”

“What do you want?” said Catherine.

“I want this castle in a state of constant readiness,” said General Graten.  “I want us to act like we’re under siege, because as far as I’m concerned, we are.  We need a clear chain of command, we need a clear rotation of the watch, and we need to know where everyone is at all times.  And if you’re not willing to do it, then we’ll do it without you. This is your castle.  You are in command, not us. We shouldn't have to plead with you to make yourself available at night. You should instead be giving us directions on how we can contact you.”

“Watch your tone,” Catherine spoke slowly, emphasizing each word. “I’m fond of you, General, but don’t push things.  I’ll not tolerate insubordination.”

“Insubordination? How can I be insubordinate if you don’t provide any leadership?  There’s nothing for me to insubordinate!”

“What do you want? General?”

“I want you to acknowledge that we are at war with these monsters. And I want you to acknowledge that you are more than just the leader of this army, you are also its greatest asset. These men will die for you, if you show them leadership. But they’re not going to die for you just so you can lie in bed at night undisturbed. I want you supporting your army at all times. And I want Talon and Vivian and you always present in case the monsters come back.”

“Very well,” said Catherine. “We will work out an arrangement.”

While General Graten and Catherine were still talking, Robert came into the room and quietly whispered to Midor that Vivian was waking up.  Midor at once excused himself and ran over to Vivian’s bedside.

Vivian had indeed have her eyes open now, but she was still lying in bed and had a confused look about her.  Midor knelt down and took her hand. “Darling,” he said.

“Oh, I have such a headache,” she said. “What happened?”

“It’s okay now.”

“What happened?” Vivian insisted.

Midor swallowed. “What do you remember?” he asked.

“The monsters… they were coming for Robert!”

“Yes, they were. But you stopped them,” Midor reminded her.

“I did. I remember the power surging through me.”
“What else do you remember?”

Vivian thought, and then held her head.  “Everything else is like a dream. Like I was watching someone else, but it was me that was doing it.”

“It’s the black magic,” said Midor.  “It’s taking over.”

“Maybe,” said Vivian thoughtfully. “But I’m back in control now.”

“Let’s keep it that way,” said Midor. “I don’t want you to use the magic again.”

“I know it has its risks,” said Vivian. “But what would you have had me do? The monsters were coming for Robert.”

“That was different,” Midor said.  “You had to save Robert.  But after that.”

“Yes,” said Vivian, but she was staring up at the ceiling and not looking directly at Midor.  “Yes, I shouldn’t have used the magic after that.  Except more monsters are coming.  And we’re going to have to fight them somehow.”

“Let me worry about that,” said Midor.

“You?” Vivian laughed.  “What do you know about fighting monsters?’

“Fine. Then let Catherine and General Graten worry about that.”

“We can’t rely on Catherine.  She couldn’t even get out of bed last night to help us,” Vivian said.

“I know,” said Midor.  “General Graten is talking to her right now.  They’re working something out.”  Midor paused.  “I don’t trust Catherine either.  Sometimes I think she’s deliberately not helping in order to force you to use your magic.”

“Maybe, said Vivian.  “But it sounds as if sometimes you want black magic to be used, you just don’t want me to do it.”

Chapter 69: John Saves the Leaves

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The Birch Leaf Army and the Maple Leaf Army drew up in a glade of the forest.  The two armies eyed each other.

John stepped forward into the open space between the two armies.  In his present size, he was not much bigger than either army.  But he was undoubtedly stronger than any leaf.  He was still human, after all, and possessing of human strength, even though he had been shrunk down.

“Greetings, Maple Leafs,” John called out.  “I have travelled here with the Birch Leaves, but I come to you with a message of peace.”

“We do not trust you,” shouted the Commander of the Maple Leaf Army back.  “We believe you come in deceit.”

“Why would I come in deceit?” asked John.

“Because you are travelling with the Birch leaves!”

“But why would I need to come in deceit?” asked John.  “You pose no threat to me.  I could tear through all of you if I needed.”

And at that moment, John felt a sharp prick in his right arm. “Ow, what was that?” he exclaimed.  He looked down and saw a tiny arrow sticking out of his arm. 

“We have weapons,” said the Maple commander.  “Bows, arrows, swords, spears.  Our leaf bodies may be thin and vulnerable compared to you humans, but if you get too close to us, you will feel our weapons.”

John pulled the arrow out of his arm angrily.  “Very well,” he said.  “Then how do I prove to you I don’t come in deceit.”

“You do not,” said the Maple commander.  “You have nothing that we want, and we do not want to talk to you.  Leave us alone, and let us fight our battle with the Birch Leaves.”

“I told you this was a bad idea,” said Benjamin the Mouse.  “We don’t have Midor’s ability to negotiate peace.  We should go.”

But then, another voice boomed out.  “How dare you insult us like this,” said Klangor.  And even though he was still in the body of the rabbit, his voice seemed to have the quality of his old dragon body.

“We will devour you,” said Starrof.  

“Klangor, Starrof, no!” said John.  “This is not why we came here.”

“This is not why you came here,” said Starrof.  “But in these rabbit bodies, we can eat nothing but grass and leaves now.  And we haven’t had the opportunity to terrorize and eat humans for weeks now.”

“How we have missed it,” said Klangor.  “You do not understand how delightful it is to chase down a terrified prey and then swallow him whole.  Or to chew him while he screams.”

“But now that we are among living, talking leaves,” said Starrof, “We once again have food that we can chase and eat while it is still alive.”

“But…” John’s voice faltered momentarily, as he tried to think about how he would form his objection.   “But why do you need to eat food that is terrified?  You can eat plenty of grass, and this forest has many leaves that are not magical.”

“Foolish human,” replied Starrof.  “You can never understand the simple joy that we dragons get from running down our prey and eating it alive.”

“It gives us a feeling of tremendous power,” said Klangor.  “A feeling that we’ve been sorely lacking the past few weeks.  Human, we desperately need to chase and eat these leaves in order to feel alive.”

“No, no, I forbid it,” said John.  “We came here to help these leaves, not to eat them.”

“That was never our agenda,” said Klangor.  “That was only what you wanted.”

“I don’t understand this,” said Starrof.  “These leaves are about to go into battle and kill each other anyway.  It’s already apparent that you will not succeed in stopping their battle.  So, what is the difference between them killing each other, and us eating them?”

“That is a good point,” said Benjamin the Mouse.

“You will not eat these leaves,” said John. 

“But you are powerless to stop us, human!” said Starrof.  “We are much bigger than you are, even in our rabbit bodies.”

It was true.  Even though the dragons were now shrunken down to rabbits, they were rather large rabbits.  And they were much bigger than John was at the moment.  So when the rabbits charged forward, there was little John could do to stop them.

John tried to get in front of the rabbits, but Starrof and Klangor just knocked him over.  And then they were like wolves among the sheep pouncing this way and that among the leaves.

Now, during the conversation, John and the rabbits had been speaking rather loudly, so all of the leaves could hear.  And some of the leaves could easily guess what was going to happen next, so a few of the leaves (particularly those near the back of the ranks) had already started running once the rabbits had announced their intention.  But the commanders of both armies had done their best to keep their ranks together.  Once the rabbits began the attack, the leaves did fight back as best they could.  They shot their tiny arrows and threw their tiny spears, and generally tried to mount an effective rally against the attacking rabbits.  But although the tiny arrows and spears stung the rabbits (much like the feeling of stings from tiny insects), they were not able to drive them back.

“This is not quite the outcome we had hoped for,” said Benjamin the Mouse.  “This is why it is never wise to attempt to do Midor’s job.  If you’re not careful, you could easily make the situation worse.”

“We’ve got to stop them,” said John.  “This is against the law of the forest.”

“Hmmm, I wonder,” said Benjamin.  “The law of the forest forbids animals from eating each other.  It doesn’t say anything about eating leaves.  Even if they are magic, talking leaves.  The rabbits might be able to get away with it.”

Meanwhile, Starrof and Klangor were having more fun than they’ve had in weeks.  They laughed at how the terrified leaves ran before them. When the Maple Leaves attempted to form ranks and use their spears and swords to make a line of defense, Starrof (using his powerful rabbit hind legs) just jumped up into the air and landed right in the middle of the leaves, throwing their defensive formation into chaos, and causing them to run confusedly in all direction.

Eventually, in all the chaos and running around, the Maple Leaf Commander and the Birch Leaf Commander found themselves right next to each other.

“This is all your treachery!” yelled the Maple Leaf Commander.  “You brought these outsiders here!”

“You take that back!” yelled the Birch Leaf Commander.  And the two of them pulled out their swords and started fighting.

“Guys, no!” John yelled out.  John ran between them and pushed them aside.  “You can’t fight now.  You guys need to save your men.  You have to work together.”

“It’s no use,” said the Birch Commander.  “The rabbits are too big for us to fight.  We can only hope to kill as many Maple Leaves as we can before we perish.”

“No, you can do this,” said John.  “Organize your men into formation.  Form an orderly retreat, with the front line facing the enemy.  Then back yourselves up into the trees.  The rabbits can’t climb trees.  You’ll be safe as long as you climb up there.  But you’ll have to work together.”

“He’s right,” said the Birch Leaf Commander.

“Just this once,” said the Maple Leaf Commander.  

And they began running to their men, exhorting them to form up into lines and start retreating back up the trees.

John, meanwhile, tried to distract Starrof and Klangor.  “Follow me,” he said.  “I’ll show you where even more leaves are.”

The rabbits were not fooled, but they were momentarily amused, and they stopped their attack on the leaves to watch John.  “Human, what are you trying to do?” asked Starrof.  “We are not fooled by your pathetic attempts at distraction.”

“We have all the prey we wish for right here,” said Klangor.

“Oh, sure,” said John.  “If you want to go after the soft, easy leaves.  But what about doing battle with the tough, heavily armed leaves?”

“Human, we’ve been travelling with you this whole time,” said Starrof.  “We know full well that you have not encountered any creatures we have not, because we’ve been alongside  you all the while.”

“Why do you try to deceive us with such transparent falsehoods?” asked Klangor.  “How dumb do you think you are?”

During this time, however, the Maple Leaves and the Birch Leaves had formed their men into formation, and were slowly backing up into the trees, while keeping their rear guard.  When Klangor and Staroff turned around to see what was happening, half the leaves were up the tree already.

The two rabbits ran towards the leaves.  The rear-guard line of the leaves threw their spears and arrows.  Although the tiny spears and arrows did little more than sting the rabbits, the coordinated volley resulted in some very painful pricks, and temporarily halted them.

While the rabbits were halted, the commanders instructed their men to change formation.  The ones in the rear guard had already used up their arrows and spears, but the line behind them still had fresh weapons.  So they changed order, and the line behind readied their weapons.  When the rabbits tried to charge again, they were met by a fresh volley, which again halted them.

This repeated a couple more times, but by the time it was over, all the leaves had safely made it up the tree branch before any of the rabbits could eat them.  Then Starrof and Klangor were left sitting at the bottom of the tree branch, silently watching their prey advance safely up into the tree branches.

“We shall never forgive you for this, human,” said Starrof angrily.  “When we return to dragon form, we will eat you, but not before slowly chewing you alive so as to maximize your pain.”

John looked at the rabbit.  “I believe that you are telling the truth,” he said.  “It therefore makes no sense for me to continue travelling with you to the land of the fairies.”

“But we are not sure of the way.  We still desire to travel with you,” Klangor said.

“Yes, but…” John paused, hoping the obvious would dawn on the rabbits, but it did not.  “...it is of no benefit to me to see you restored to your dragon form, since you will eat me when you are restored.”

“That is a separate matter,” said Klangor.  “It need not interfere with our travels.”

“Yes, but… it is in my best interest to not be eaten, and the way for me not to be eaten is to make sure you stay in your rabbit form, and the way for me to make sure you stay in your rabbit form is to make sure you do not find your way to the land of the fairies.”

“But it is only what is just!  You’ve interfered with our actions.”

“Nevertheless…” said John.  The rabbits looked at him like they expected more, but John just kept silent.  

Finally Starroff said, “We wish to consult with each other.  Will you allow us some time.”

“Please,” said John.

Starroff and Klangor hopped a short distance away from John and Benjamin the Mouse, and talked to each other in whispered tones.  John couldn’t make out what they were saying, but after a short conference, they hopped back.  “We wish to take back what we have said earlier,” said Klangor.  “We do not make any threats or promises about eating you in the future.”

“So you’ve taken back your threat,” said John.  “But that’s not the same thing as promising not to eat me.”

“We’ve taken back our threat,” said Starroff.

“That’s not good enough,” said John.  “I want a promise that you won’t eat me.”

The rabbits then hopped away again, and this time they were consulting with each other for a full five minutes before they hopped back again.  “We have forgiven you for everything you have done to us up until now,” said Klangor.  “We will not eat you, unless there are fresh transgressions that occur after this moment.  That is the best we can do, human.  We can not make a blanket promise never to eat you.  We are dragons.”

“Very well,” said John.  “Close enough.  Let us travel together once more then.”

Chapter 68: Searching for the Water Sprite Queen

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King Carlyle and Jacob the Frog swam down the river.  They swam near the bottom of the river bed, and the Water Sprite, Lydia, swam beside them.  “Our Queen was last seen heading this way,” she said.  “I do hope she’s okay.”

“Don’t you worry,” said King Carlyle.  “We will do everything we can to find her.”

“We will try our best,” said Jacob the frog.  “But I should warn you that we have no skill in finding people.”

“Jacob!  A little confidence please.  I’m only trying to cheer up the young lady.”

“She is a Water Sprite, your majesty, not a lady.  And as we discussed yesterday, we have no experience of finding anyone in this river.  Now, if Midor were here…”

“As I told you, yesterday,” said King Carlyle, “I do not want to hear the name Midor.”

“Very well, your majesty.”

Every creature they met, be it fish, or frog, or crawfish, or any other aquatic creature, King Carlyle asked them when they had last seen the Water Sprite Queen.  Invariably, they had all seen the Queen of the Water Sprites.  She was obviously a very popular and visible part of the river.  But very few of them were able to offer any useful information about where she might have disappeared to.

The only information that they did get was very vague.  A turtle mumbled something about how she had been captured by a very dark magic.  And a minnow said something similar.

“A dark magic,” said King Carlyle slowly to himself.  “Now we’re getting somewhere.”

“If your majesty pleases, I had assumed all along it was some sort of dark magic,” said Jacob the Frog.  “That’s the only thing that could make a queen of the Water Sprites disappear.  But the question is, what kind of dark magic is it? And that, I fear, will be very difficult to find out.”

“It will be very difficult to defeat,” said King Carlyle.  “But it should not be very difficult to find.  I have some experience of magic.  It runs in my family, you know.  And my experience is that magic never stays hidden for very long.”

Jacob the Frog was not entirely sure that this was the lesson that King Carlyle’s family history would indicate.  But he decided to keep his mouth shut.

And so they kept journeying down the river.

Chapter 67: The Battle Against the Ancient Monsters

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The monsters came at midnight.

General Graten was standing guard with 50 of his men.  Midor, George, Rufus and Henry were also helping to stand guard.  (The others had gone to sleep for the night.  They took shifts every night.)

There was no warning this time.  The ground simply exploded beneath them, and monsters leaped out.

The first was a huge serpent.  It reared up it’s head, and immediately began attacking the soldiers.  It’s fangs glistened in the moonlight.

It was a full moon, which helped illuminate things.  The soldiers stabbed at the serpent with their spears, and it hissed and attacked them with it’s fangs.  It tried to swallow some of the soldiers, but they used their shields to block it.  General Graten ran at the beast and jumped onto its back, and tried to plunge his sword into its back.  But the creature's hard scales wouldn’t let it be penetrated, and the sword did no good.

Henry lunged at the snake for a frontal attack, but his sword just bounced of off the snake’s coils.

“Get Catherine,” General Graten called to Henry, still riding the snake’s back.

“I’ll not be the first to leave the fight,” Henry responded.

“George,” Graten called out, “talk some sense into the boy.”

“I’ll go,” said George, who turned and ran.

The snake reared up, and General Graten fell to the ground.  The snake hissed and spat venom in all directions.  The venom burned the skin of those it touched.  Then, the giant snake disappeared into the darkness of the forest.

“We’ve lost it,” said Rufus.

“Maybe  we should--” Midor began, but he didn’t even have time to finish, before the ground exploded beneath them again.  This time, the monster was a huge black wolf that sprang out of the ground.  It growled, and then began leaping and charging at the soldiers.  

“Use your shields men,” said Graten.  “Don’t let it get it’s jaws around you.”

The wolf’s mouth was so huge that it could just about swallow a man whole (without even having to chew him).  But whenever the wolf would try to eat one of the men, they would thrust their shields at the beast’s mouth, right where the wolf would close his jaws, they were usually able to keep the wolf back just enough to stop it from devouring them.  The wolf instead would just chomp down on the shields, pick up the soldiers (whose arms were strapped into their shields) and toss them into the air.

“Keep sharp,” Graten yelled, as he charged for the wolf.

Henry and Graten reached the wolf at the same time.  Graten, who had always been mildly amused by Henry’s impetuousness, was beginning to lose his patience.  “Back off, boy! Don’t get in my way!” Graten yelled.

“You have no rights over me,” said Henry.  “This fight is just as much mine.”

“You’re getting underfoot,” Graten said.  “I need space to attack.”

The wolf, hearing them argue close at hand, swung its head in their direction and snapped its jaws.  When it opened its jaws to bite at them, it left it’s soft tongue vulnerable for half a minute.  Both Graten and Henry saw the opening, and both lunged at the same time, which resulted in them bumping into each other.  Graten cursed.  Henry recovered his footing and swung his sword wildly, almost hitting Graten.  Graten jumped backwards to avoid the blow.  The Wolf then snapped his jaws and snapped Henry’s sword in half.

Graten pushed Henry out of the way, and thrust upwards with his sword, stabbing the monster underneath the jaw.  The wolf howled in pain.  The wolf bared his teeth, and snapped.  Graten jumped backwards just in time.  Henry was standing up by this time, and thrust at the wolf with what little was left of his sword.  Henry’s broken sword couldn’t even penetrate the wolf’s thick skin.  But the wolf turned its head and snapped his jaws and would have bitten Henry’s arm off if General Graten hadn’t pulled him away right at the last minute.

While they were still fighting with the giant wolf, another monster emerged from the ground.  This one looked like a giant spider.  It had huge fangs that were dripping with poison.  It immediately started attacking the men and lunging at them with its poisoned fangs.

Even Henry at this point was nearing exhaustion by the time the third monster arrived.  The soldiers stuck to holding their shields and trying to deflect the spider’s fangs, but it was a difficult job.

At this point, George came back out into the field.

“Where is Catherine?” asked Graten.

“I couldn’t get to her,” said George.  “The goblins and the ogre are keeping her too closely guarded.”

“Of course,” said Midor, knowingly.  “She’s not going to let anyone gag her in her sleep, like Carlyle did last time.”

“Tell the goblins and the ogre we need to speak to her now,” said Graten.  “Tell her about the monsters.”

“I did,” said George.  “They didn’t listen to me.”

“What about Talon?”

“I can’t find Talon.”

Graten and George were shouting now, partly out of necessity (they needed to hear each other over the din of the battle) and partly because of the excitement of the moment.

While Catherine slept on , the rest of the castle was beginning to wake up.  Jason, Charles, Robert and Grace came out to join the battle.  

Grace shot her arrows at the monsters, and managed to embed some of her arrows in the skin of the giant wolf.  The monster howled with pain, and charged towards Grace.

Robert immediately placed himself in front of Grace to protect her.  Since Grace and Robert had both rushed out to the battle from bed, they were not properly armed.  Robert did not carry a sword, and for a weapon he had in his hands only a spear that he had grabbed from the castle walls.

As the Wolf charged toward Grace, Robert ran forward and plunged his spear into the Wolf’s breast.  It howled with pain, and momentarily stopped it’s charge.  Grace took advantage of the pause to shoot another arrow at the beast, which hit the wolf in the side.  It again howled in anger, then renewed its charge.

And then the Wolf stopped suddenly as if it had hit an invisible wall.  And indeed, it had hit an invisible wall.  Vivian was now walking out of the castle, chanting her magical spells.  She chanted louder and louder, and the Wolf was lifted into the air.  

The Giant Spider and the Giant Serpent (who had suddenly returned to the battle) both charged towards Vivian at once.

“Vivian, look out!” yelled Midor, as he ran towards her.

Vivian stopped her chanting, and stopped focusing on the Wolf, who fell back to the ground.  She instead turned her attention to the giant spider and the snake.  She uttered a spell, and a bolt of light flew out from her.  It hit the spider like a knife, and cut off one of its legs.  The spider stumbled momentarily, but then kept charging nonetheless.  Vivian chanted again, and another bolt of light cut off two more legs.  The spider halted.

The serpent slithered with amazing speed towards Robert, but Vivian sent a bolt of light at it that cut through it’s skin.  A long gash was left on the serpent’s body.

The Wolf, who Vivian had momentarily neglected, was back on his feet and jumping towards Robert, but Vivian sent an energy bolt that cut the wolf across the chest, and it howled in pain.

“Vivian, no!” Midor yelled.  Midor had been running towards Vivian this whole time, and when he reached her, he grabbed her arms and shook her.  “Stop it!” Midor said.

“Don’t stop her!” said General Graten.  “She’s fighting the monsters.  We need her.”

“Vivian, this is black magic.  You know that,” said Midor.

“She didn’t kill anything,” said General Graten.

“She doesn’t need to,” said Midor.  “Any magic that inflicts physical pain or injury is black magic, whether it results in death or not.”

“No time to argue now,” said Graten.  The monsters were already getting back to their feet, and this time, instead of attacking Robert and Grace, they turned to Vivian.

“Don’t do it,” said Midor.  “It’s not worth it Vivian.”

“I’m sorry Midor, I don’t have time to discuss this now,” said Vivian, and she pushed Midor away and turned to face the monsters.

Immediately, Midor grabbed her again, and tried to restrain her arms.  Vivian again pushed him away, but this time there was an angry chant accompanying her push, and her arms were surrounded by a light energy that added extra force to her pushing.  Midor fell down to the ground hard.  “You’ve never trusted me,” she said angrily.  Her whole body was glowing now.  “You’ve never trusted me to make my own decisions.  You’ve always tried to control me just like my father.”

“Vivian, you know that’s not true,” said Midor. 

Vivian was now floating up in the air, levitating, and surrounded by a glowing yellow light.  “I am the heir to this throne, and I will start making my own decisions.”

“Is she flying?” Graten said, and he nearly dropped his sword in surprise.

“Vivian, be careful,” George yelled.

Vivian flew up to the mouth of the wolf.  The Wolf snapped his jaws and tried to swallow her whole, but the yellow light surrounding Vivian seemed to give her extra strength.  She radiated light and held the wolf’s mouth open.

“Vivian, just change him into a hamster,” said Midor.  “Like Catherine did to the other monster.”

“I haven’t learned that spell yet,” said Vivian.  “But I’ve learned this one.” She yelled out something in the druid language.  It sounded terrible and forceful coming out of her throat, and a blinding flash of light followed.  It knocked all the teeth out of the Wolf’s mouth.  The creature howled with the pain of multi tooth extractions all at once.  “Begone,” Vivian said.  “Or I’ll cut you to pieces.”

The Wolf turned and ran.

Vivian flew towards the giant serpent and the giant spider.  “Spider, you’ve already lost 3 of your legs,” said Vivian.  “Go now, before I take the rest.”

The Spider hissed.  “After us, more monsters are coming.  Monsters who can’t be hurt by your magic.”

“So be it,” said Vivian.  “I’ll deal with them when they come.”

The Spider hissed, and then ran into the woods, following the wolf.

The serpent stood facing Vivian.  “Well Serpent,” said Vivian.  “Do you require more of a demonstration of my power?”

“Me?” the serpent hissed softly, “I merely wish to--”  And then, while it was still talking, the serpent suddenly struck.  It had been hoping to catch Vivian off-guard by softly hissing, and then darting forward with its fangs, the way snakes are often wont to attack.

The serpent's fangs struck Vivian, and the serpent tried to inject his poison into her, but the yellow light surrounding and protecting Vivian deflected the blow.  The serpent just bounced backwards, and Vivian was unharmed.  Then Vivian chanted her terrible chant, and the serpent’s teeth fell out.

Vivian kept chanting, and bolts flew out striking the snake.  It turned to flee, but Vivian followed it, chanting, and striking it.

“I yield,” the serpent cried.  “Cease your attacks.”

But Vivian continued.  And continued.

“Vivian, stop!” Midor yelled.  “Stop, don’t give in to the black magic!”

“Mother!” Robert cried out.

“What’s going on?” asked General Graten.

“It’s the magic,” said Midor.  “She’s losing control.”

The serpent tried to flee into the woods, but Vivian followed it.  Midor tried to run after the two of them, but he couldn’t keep up.  Robert ran after Midor.

Meanwhile, the soldiers slumped in relief.  “Don’t relax too much!” General Graten shouted.  “We’re not in the clear yet, lads.  More monsters could come out of that hole at any minute.”

“We need more men,” said George.

“Did you see what just happened?” General Graten asked.  “We don’t need more men.  Unless you want to set up a buffet for the monsters.  More men is just more food for them.  50 men couldn’t make a dent in these monsters, do you think 100 men can?”

“I almost had him,” said Henry.  “With more practice, I could slay these monsters.”

“Shut up!” said General Graten.

General Graten turned back to George and Rufus.  “We’ve been such fools this whole time.  We have 3 magicians in this castle now.  And we’re still using soldiers to guard these holes.  We need to have one magician standing guard at all times--Catherine, Talon and Vivian.  The rest of us can all get some sleep.  And the moment one of these monsters so much as sticks his hand out of the ground, they’ll change him into a mushroom.  Problem solved.”

“Didn’t you see what just happened?” asked George.  “Vivian was using black magic.”

“Did you see those monsters?” asked General Graten.  “We’re lucky none of the men were killed.  If Vivian hadn’t come down, they could easily have eaten all of my men.”

“You know he’s right, George,” Rufus said.  “It’s insanity to try to fight these monsters with men.  We don’t have to use black magic, and it doesn’t even have to be Vivian.  If we can get Talon and Catherine to patrol this area…”

“Maybe,” George admitted.  “But among other things, the problem is that we don’t give orders to Catherine or Talon.  They do what they think is good for themselves.”

“They don’t want this forest to be overrun by monsters anymore than we do,” said Rufus.  “We should talk to them tomorrow.”